SB 483 
.W28 K4 
Copy 1 



SB 483 
■W28 K4 
Copy 1 




=:^^^^^^ 



T\}t mag tn make lUJashwgtan Qlilg 



RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED TO 
MY GRAND NIECE, MISS MAY 
FLETCHER BECAUSE OF HER 
GREAT LOVE OF THE BEAUTY 
OF NATURE EVEN AS A CHILD 



COPVRIGHT1916 BY WINTER P. KE Y, W ASHINGTON , D. C 






AN APPP:AL to replace crooked, deformed and INCON- 
GRUOUS TREES OF THE WHITE HOUSE LAWN AND PUBLIC 
PARKS OF WASHINGTON, D. C, BY THE BEST SPECIMEN 
OF FRUIT AND TREE LIFE TO BE FOUND IN 
AMERICA OR AMERICA'S EDEN. 



i^^i^ei^^ 



To one Aviio lias made a study of trees, biislies, vines, and flowers, and 
the part they can be made to play in making a home in a city or suburb so 
as to give it that degree of beauty, dignity, or grandeur that the building 
and the place it occupies would seem best adapted for it, is constantly 
shocked by the absence of any well formed plan to select and arrange these 
so as to show more grace and beauty than mere brick and stone can give to 
a home. To those who are constantly crying out for a "Beautiful Wash- 
ington," let me remind them that mere houses, however beautiful in struc- 
ture, and .'treets, however straight and smooth, must be suj>plemented by 
an intelligent and well designed plan of arranging its flora, so as to make 
it conform to the architectural beauty of the building and grounds sur- 
rounding the same, as well as to the character of those who are to occu])y 
it, even including their nationality. 

No man will attempt to herd Ins sheep witli a bidldog. or hunt pheasants 
with a coach dog, or use a hound to draw liis snow-sleigh. Why not use the 
same degree of intelligence in arranging trees, shi'ubs. flowers, etc., about 
the house ? 

Let the German home be surrounded by "Unter den Linden" and the 
liome of the Norwegian with the spruce, but give your Vermont neighbor a 
yard full of sugar maples and let the Southern gentleman have his magnolia 
grandiflora, and who would deny to the hardy Scotchman, though in minia- 
ture, his rocky glen or stony clitif, familiar scene of his boyhood days, with 
its native ^rees and shrubs growing among them, even here in the Natioiud 
Capital ? 

Washington, D. C, is no mushroom town, to be moved when a new 
gold strike is made or another oil gusher is drilled, but the i)ermanent 




©CI.Atl25389 



JAN 18 1916 



Capital of a great nation, and the trees should be hardy and long'-lived, and 
of a more stately eliaracter than our present ones. 

Too much attention is given in all our cities to planting soft wood tr<'rs 
that break easily in a brisk wind or storm, while their h^avis serve as a 
favorite food for the web catipilla. If the propagation of worms in oui- 
modern cities is desired, why not plant the mulberry tree and rais,^ the sill- 
worm, as ihere is some protit to be had in the matter of silk culture, beside 
^living profitable employment to those who need it. The architect, stone 
masons, ai bricklayers have given our city many beautiful buildings, and 
these should not be marred by the presence of deformed, diseased, and 
maimed troes. Let the trees that surround the Congressional Library and 
the Corcoran Gallery of Art be such as are in keeping with their beaiity, 
grace, and dignity. The trees in Capitol Park and those that surround the 
several stately buildings on Capitol Hill can be replaced by others that will 
add 100 pel cent to the beauty of them, as well as giving more dignity and 
character to these buildings. 

After fretting over the unprepossessing and incongruous character of 
the trees in the front lawn of the White House for a ninnber of years, I 
secured a permit in June to take photographs of them. Not being willing, 
to risk my judgment in the matter, 1 got Mr. W. H. Forman, of tlie Wasli- 
nigton Tree Expert Co., to assist in securing photos of the beni. diseased, 
and ill-designed trees there. Although a lover of trees and a specialist in 
treating them, and^ having lived in the city for several years, he expressed 
hims' If profoundly astonished at their poor condition. He qiiite agreed 
with me that every one of them should be removed and replaced by trees 
that would be more nearly in keeping with the dignity of the Presidential 
residence. No house in the Uniteil States should be surrounded by trees 
of a more beautiful tyi)e and stately ai)])earance than tliose on the front 
lawn of the White House. This lawn shoidd be the ju'ide and joy of ever}' 
American and the envy of every European. 

?>Iore than a century has jiassed since the City of Washington became 
1 he National Capital. With the passing of the last wigwam the last incon- 
gruous growth of forest trees should have passed, if we are intelligent and 
C'ultui'ed enough to unth'rstand the tlesign God had in view in giving man 
.so many vai-ieties of trei s for his many uses, and use^JJ^onr intelligence to 
locate these trees, shrubbery, vines, etc., about our cities and homes, so as to 
designate both the character of the man, as well as his nationality, and thus 
show our refined ta.ste to its best advantage. 

The elm tree is essentially a tree designed by God to shade the wide 
streets and sidewalks of our cities, towns, and villages, or to stand alone as a 
giant timbrella shade tree, while the Lombardyde poplar was designed to line 
the roadside leading from the pretentious farm mansion on an elevation to 
the main thoroughfare leading to the market town. There are many localities 
in our cities where this stately poplar can be artistically planted, say as a 



i'lhadc tree on a very narrow street, or when shade is needed in the upper 
windows ot onr tall' office bnildings, just as those on the south front of the 
Carnegie Library and apartment houses. 

On thr east' front of one of onr local millionaire's palatial homes, the 
irees and shrubbery bespeak th<- home of culture and refinement, while the 
irees on the west side seem to be designed to shade the big log hut of some 
poor man, and he too lazy to care for them. The surprising thing in this 
case is that both conditions hav,' been produced without any design on the 
part of its occupants, able as they are to have both trees and shi-ubbery 
that will add more beauty and dignity to the appearance of their com- 
fortable home. 

I sincerely hope that the present commissioner of parks will not pirmit 
rhe parking between the Union Station and the Capitol building to be 
marred by crooked and deformed forest trees, but make it a beauty spot, 
the beauty and loveliness of which will not be surpassed on the contiiient, 
and yet nof hide any of the fine buildings now in view. 

That portion of the plaza lying between the Union Station and the 
Capitol Building can be greatly improved by selecting one or more of the 
largest squares — one of which should be in front of the Senate Offic ' Build- 
ing and the other near the station — and convert them into lakes, amply 
supplied with fish and swan, and their edges planted with such semi-aquatic 
plants and trees as will make the best show, while some of the smaller spaces 
should be used for the display of an almost innumerable variety of spray- 
ing and spouting fountains, and, when possibl", glass tubes should be 
employed so as to hide or keep secret, by their invisibility, the source of the 
water's many ^f rivolous - forms, etc. Glass bowls, many feet across, of the 
same whit.^ness as the water which overflows its edge, then sprays from 
invisible or colored glass tubes should be used to puzzle visiting friends, and 
^-flfewStPinterest alike old and young. The surface of all the land should 
be closely sodded by blue grass, because of its richer color, and this shonld 
be duplicated on the White House lawn. Colored glass dams and 
tubes can be made to vary this scene of beauty ; indeed, fancy should here be 
fiet free to do her most gorgeous work, and that in the best maimer, for the 
cost can never equal, much less surpass, the refining effect that such a scene 
will have for the inspiration of a dull comprehension, much less when 
\iewed by a soul hungering for visions of loveliness. To-day this space, 
with its fringe of defori.ied trees and ugly red clay, only reminds one of a 
■widow's field, and she too j) or to care for it. Shame on a rich Government 
fhat will permit snch a desert waste of red and yellow clay spots, where 
only beauty, and loveliness, if -rf grandeur of scenery, can and should be 
displayed in a most ravishing mani^er. 

The b-autifying of our mid-city ]iarks in this and th(^ many other ways 
that an educated fancy may dictate, will do more toward a permanent 
uplifl of inspiring souls than all otliei- efforts combined can do, besides 



chasing gu<om and sadness from downcast souls and hearts hardened by the 
irony of fate. Beautiful pictures, when wrought in nature, are far more 
inspiring than any that the artist's brush can spread upon canvass, so let 
us have them for all the cities upon this continent. Washington should be 
the most beautiful and inspiring to man, if not the end of human effort in 
this diri clion. Water, trees, fruits, flowers, rocks, hills, gorges, brocks, and 
vales were given to man by God to weave into things of beauty about our 
cities and 'lomes, for the purpose of ennobling and uplifting his soul, so as to 
make it eJtsier for liim to \\'orship Him who made all things. Read the 
descriptor, cf tlie Garden of Eden; brief as it is. a whole volume tilled with 
phot .grai)!is and elaborately worded could not do adequate justice to its 
beauty. ' And the Ijord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there 
he put man whom He had formed." "And out of the ground made the Lord 
to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food." * * * 
"And a river went out of Eden to water the garden." Without question, 
no man can make a garden as beautiful as God can. and did make in Eden; 
but this is no reason why the American people should be content with the 
present coarse arrangement of the flora and water distribution we have in 
this, the National Capital. Let us do our best to imitate the garden God 
planted foi man. "eastward in Eden,"" and maybe we may become more like 
the man God would have us be. The savage is content to live amidst unkept 
surroundings, ai d shall we? If we would make our boast good, that we are a 
Chri.stian, civilized people, then we should make our city the most attractive 
m America. A veritable garden of trees, fruits, tiowers, water so highly 
arranged Lliat all men will exclaim. What a beautiful city Washington is. 

Sir, do you live in or near the National Capitol, and have you a refined 
taste, and are you a lover of the beautiful ? Then so stamp this fact around 
your dwelling that the stranger, as well as your intimates, will intuitively 
stop and exclaim, Here lives one gentleman, of refined tastes, possessing a 
■^^oul easily stirred by Nature's beautiful designs when gorgeously arranged 
in tasty order. Do not be content with stone and brick for t«a(^ home: 
these will do for a house; but a home cannot be made without a display of 
nature's best and most attractive flora, artistically arranged about the 
building ijito a veritable poem of trees, shrubbery, vines, flowers, and water. 
These are nature's royal gifts to man for home building, and should be 
used to the best advantage. 

The average American comes to Washington for inspiration. Do not 
disappoint him any longer. Give him beauty spots at the White House, 
around the Capitol building, at Union Station, in the Smithsonian grounds, 
that will make )iim an interesting entt^rtainer to his children and neighbors, 
the rest of his life about the beauty of the National Capital and its many 
private hv)mes, so elegantly and artistically beautified, thus stamping 
iVashington as the capital of a cultured people, whose superior refinement 
surpasses that of all other people. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



000 883 865 3 



i>altimoiv Sun of ScptcmlxT '4 has this sav of (Tardciis- 

GARDENS. 
By the Bentztown Bard. 
All gardens are God's gardens; 
Soon or later 

His liand comes by to open wide tlie gate 
That he may sanction with His nttei- graec 
Eaeh vine and flower 
That decks tlie lov.dv place I 

M INTER P. KEY, 

22;') I^: St. N. E 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



000 883 865 3 



